The Community At Saint Gregory's

St. Gregory’s Academy is more than a school; it is a community, and one of the things that best defines a community is the manner in which it uses its leisure time. For what one does in his “time off,” when not constrained by the necessities of life, is sometimes the best sign of one’s mental attitude and condition of soul. This is an important measure of our school’s success in forming the sensibility of boys. Therefore, education must go on outside the classroom, and in fact the extracurricular life of the school may have the most profound influence in developing the tastes and tendencies of young men. One of these extracurricular factors which does much for the formation of boys is to give a them the real experience of a community: of belonging to something greater than oneself and become ennobled by being a part of a greater thing that transcends the sum of its parts. To borrow an example from Saint-Exupéry, this is why many miners will risk their lives to save the life of only one of their comrades. They struggle to save the principle: humanity and its intrinsic value. The experience of this fundamental phenomenon is, unfortunately, a very rare occurrence in the world today. Men are meant to live in close-knit communities and the students of St. Gregory’s tangibly experience that which transcends and ennobles the sum of its parts, be it community, the Church, or a family.

A Conspiracy of Friendship

            A vital element in any community is friendship. C. S. Lewis wrote in his book The Four Loves that friendship is the most intellectual type of love. It is as much a matter of the mind as the heart, for friendship is a relation among a number of people who love the same thing or share a common interest or insight. This object that is held in common is of great importance. It is the catalyst for the friendship. The fitting position of friends is side by side with their focus on the same object, as contrasted with romantic love where the parties, necessarily two, focus only on each other.

            Another characteristic of this type of love is that friendship is not jealous. Friendship will allow any number of parties to join in; numbers make no difference to the mutual bonds it creates so long as they still focus on a common object. Of all the things lost to the modern world, there is perhaps none more sorely missed than the common accord of heart, mind, and hand that is true friendship. This virtue, so prized by the ancients, in which men step outside themselves into the light of a shared endeavor, offers a higher life, but only at the price of that modern independence which is really only a deadly isolation of the soul. Friendship is central to the life of St. Gregory’s Academy. Without forgetting the need for healthy opposition and competition, we work within the Salesian ethos that seeks to assume all relationships into the higher unity of divine charity in “a conspiracy of all heavenly and earthly things.” The word conspiracy has a second definition that is closer to the literal meaning of the verb con-spire which is “to breathe together.” A conspiracy in this sense means “cooperation” or “harmonious action.” When men work in concurrence toward a single end they may be understood as “conspirators.” The “conspiracy” between students and faculty brings them together in a way that is hard to achieve otherwise. The endeavors of St. Gregory’s Academy provide many objects for true friendships to grow around: the Faith, poetry, music, athletics, etc. Without such common loves, the faculty would not be unified in their vision, (which is the essence of a school), nor would the students be able to unite themselves to that vision and prosper in healthy friendships.

            The students of St. Gregory’s live together, wonder together, discover together, learn together, suffer together, and rejoice together. Upon graduation, most boys leave thinking that St. Gregory’s is a good place because of the camaraderie they share with their friends, and indeed it is a deep and wholesome one. They, however, mistake the early manifestation for the reality. They have only comprehended the surface. The reality is that they have been given a small taste of what it means to live a rich spiritual life. They have been given a small taste of what it is to open one’s mind to the great accomplishments of our Western culture and everything that it stands for. They have been given a small taste of true friendship and what that word really means.

The Spirit of Community Life

            The daily life of St. Gregory’s seeks a balance between prayer, work, and play, providing an ordered structure for boys to grow. Outside the daily schedule, the boys are also given the chance to participate in a wide range of wholesome activities such as athletics, the Academy Juggling Troupe, symposiums, talent shows, concerts, dramatic performances, local community services, and both cultural and liturgical celebrations. These festive and playful occupations provide equilibrium to the rigors of academia and physical labor. Scripture tells us that Wisdom was with God from the beginning, playing in his presence and in the world. From this we see that play is not to be dismissed as a frivolity, but is central to wisdom, the highest goal of education. A well established virtue, even intellectual virtue, is characterized not by strain, but by the ease, virtuosity, and freedom of play. Education should aim for this virtuosity, and even anticipate it just as we practice in order to play well in a game.  At St. Gregory’s we take play seriously, and strive (with due playfulness) to always rejoice with charity in the good things God gives us and to celebrate in affirmation of the goodness of His creation.

            St. Gregory’s Academy promotes an environment of technological poverty in order to free her students from the distractions of the modern world. This freedom enhances the development of the imagination and wonder since the current vogues of technology can easily become a barrier keeping our hearts from being touched by reality. Furthermore, restricting technological dependency allows a student to focus on the important aspects of reality, such as the development of virtue, the cultivation of good friendships, and the contemplation of the Divine. C.S. Lewis, in The Abolition of Man, argues that in modernity “there is something which unites magic and applied science [technology] while separating them from the “wisdom” of earlier ages. For wise men of old, the cardinal problem of human life was how to conform the soul to objective reality, and the solution was wisdom, self-discipline, and virtue. For the modern, the cardinal problem is how to conform reality to the wishes of man, and the solution is a technique.”  Such preoccupation with technological advancement greatly inhibits the search for the true, the good, and the beautiful and, therefore, the boys at St. Gregory’s are not permitted to bring personal music devices or computers, to watch television, to use cell phones, or to access the internet.

            Since the practice of physical work imparts a sense of duty and common purpose, the boys are responsible for much of the cleaning and maintenance of the school building and grounds. In this environment of healthy activity and manual labor the boys of St. Gregory’s come into direct contact with the roots of human culture and are thus challenged and encouraged to try their hands at many different pursuits. G.K. Chesterton tells us that anything worth doing is worth doing badly. Too many activities are too delightful to be left solely to the professionals. According to the etymology, an amateur is a lover, and just as charity covers a multitude of sins, so the love of an activity excuses our initial blunders and opens up the road to our eventual proficiency. The true amateur says not that any old job is good enough, but rather that although no job is ever good enough, no job at all is worse.  At St. Gregory’s we encourage everyone to try everything so that each boy will become someone.

            A notable result of this life in community is not that the boys can or will practice the social virtues and partake in a wide range of activities but that they do them with such satisfaction and pleasure. And what is remarkable about St. Gregory’s is how ordinary such activities are. Such wholesome pastimes, pleasures, and small charities are the stuff of daily life at the Academy, a life deliberately removed from the technological distractions and spiritual deficiency of modern adolescent life. This is the secret to forming brave and well-disposed Catholic men. We do not merely take away the banal and sometimes dangerous or disordered pleasures, thus losing our boys to resentment. Rather, we strive to replace them with new activities which are well-ordered and good, and, as a consequence, are better able to fill the desires of the soul.

The Purpose of Community Life

            Adhering to the perennial wisdom of the Catholic West, St. Gregory’s Academy maintains that the regulated (from the Latin regula, or rule) life it provides for her students promotes the end of orienting young men to Christ. It is only in establishing a proper relation to Him that our students shall ever hope to understand their correct position regarding everything else.  And to foster this orientation a disciplined way of life is set forth by the faculty and supervised by the staff that is designed to facilitate the students’ freedom to build up a friendship with Christ, who is Goodness, Truth, and Beauty.  Abiding by the regulations that promote the common good, the students are free to pursue what really matters – the acquisition of wisdom, growth in virtue, and progress in holiness.  The Academy’s regulations are not to be viewed as restrictive burdens, but as guidelines that will help students live the triumphant Christian life, which St. Paul so eloquently described in his letter to the Colossians: 

            “Mind the things that are above, not the things that are on earth . . . When Christ, your life, shall appear, then you too will appear with him in glory.  Therefore mortify your members, which are on earth: immorality, uncleanness, lust, evil desire and covetousness . . . put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, abusive language and foul-mouthed utterances.  Do not lie to one another.  Strip off the old man with his deeds and put on the new, one that is being renewed unto perfect knowledge, according to the image of his Creator. . . Put on therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, a heart of mercy, kindness, humility, meekness, patience.  Bear with one another and forgive one another, if any one has a grievance against any other; even as our Lord has forgiven you, so also do you forgive.  But above all things have charity, which is the bond of perfection.  And may the peace of Christ reign in your hearts. . . Whatever you do in word or work, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

            The rules of life that govern St. Gregory’s Academy do not replace mutual trust, respect, and charity; Jesus Christ remains the standard for proper Christian behavior and conduct.  Rules, however, help to establish boundaries, foster good habits, and lay a framework for social order, that the community as a whole may live the Christian life well.